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Deep Peace: Finding Calm in a World of Conflict and Anxiety
We live in a fearful, anxiety-driven age where the problems and challenges of the world, which come to us daily by news feed, far outstrip our abilities to respond. This sense of desperation leads to discord and violence: from bitter, cutting remarks to the atrocities of war; from pervasive racism to knee-jerk micro-aggressions. And it contributes to our current, peace-bankrupt social discourse, leading to patterns of dismissing, dividing from, condemning, or hating people. Conversation partners are no longer wrong or misinformed, they are evil: dehumanized and made objects of ridicule.
But what if the root of these problems is not found out there, in my dumb, evil friend, family member or colleague at work, but in here--in my mind, heart, thought-life, and emotions, in my own desire to win at all costs?
In Deep Peace, Todd Hunter analyzes the anxiety and desperation of our current moment and leads readers to receive the peace of Jesus and experience deep wholeness that comes from the peace of God. He articulates a biblical framework for peace and provides practices to help Christians value and seek peace, becoming people of peace in ordinary life. Hunter reveals the heart issues from which these problems arise and introduces spiritual practices for becoming different sorts of people and different kinds of communities.
But what if the root of these problems is not found out there, in my dumb, evil friend, family member or colleague at work, but in here--in my mind, heart, thought-life, and emotions, in my own desire to win at all costs?
In Deep Peace, Todd Hunter analyzes the anxiety and desperation of our current moment and leads readers to receive the peace of Jesus and experience deep wholeness that comes from the peace of God. He articulates a biblical framework for peace and provides practices to help Christians value and seek peace, becoming people of peace in ordinary life. Hunter reveals the heart issues from which these problems arise and introduces spiritual practices for becoming different sorts of people and different kinds of communities.
272 pages, Paperback
First published September 21, 2021
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98 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 24, 2021
Many years ago, my mother gave me a sepia-toned lithograph of an 1896 William Strutt painting. It depicts a child leading a menagerie of animals, both predators and prey, with one hand clutching a palm branch and the other resting on a calf’s head. Strutt inscribed Isaiah 11:6 — “And a little child shall lead them” (KJV) — on the painting, which he titled “Peace.”
A lack of peace characterizes the present moment.
We see it in the acrimonious way organized factions debate controversial current events, social trends, and public policies. These debates negatively impact our personal relationships, dividing families and friends. Regrettably, even churches experience division. Christians may be united by faith, but too often, we are divided by politics as well.
The lack of peace outside of us operates in a vicious cycle with the lack of peace inside of us. Disconcerting times lead to discontented people. In turn, discontented people express themselves in ways that disconcert the times even more.
In such a moment, we Christians need to remember what peace is, understand why we don’t experience it, and commit to living peaceably both inside and out. This is the subject of Todd Hunter’s new book, Deep Peace: Finding Calm in a World of Conflict and Anxiety. Hunter is bishop of Churches for the Sake of Others, a diocese in the Anglican Church in North America.
Peace, writes Hunter, is “well-being in the widest sense of the word.” That well-being is personal, relational and social. In other words, and using the author’s prepositional phrases, peace should exist “within,” “with others,” and “for the sake of the world.”
Why is peace elusive? Fear, anger, aggression, and undue attachment to material possessions threaten our well-being. Peace eludes us when we experience pain and unanswered prayers, or when we act in self-centered ways. Online activity, obsession with failure, and FOMO (fear of missing out) exacerbate our feelings of ill-being. Hunter names these things “peace killers” and traces their source to “disordered desires.”
When we have such desires, we experience peace neither within nor with others. God’s kingdom, the one described in Isaiah 11:6, brings peace, but to experience that peace, our disordered desires must give way to a well-ordered heart. “What comprises a heart at peace and one that lives in peace with others?” Hunter asks. “It is a heart oriented toward and animated and energized by the kingdom of God.”
Living peaceably, then, requires heart work. “The opposite of peace is not merely conflict or war,” Hunter says, “but also anxiety marked by a noisy mind and an irritated soul.” Hunter goes on to write, “Peace is core to Jesus’ person and central to his work in the church and the world.” To experience the peace Jesus felt, then, we must become more like Him.
As we become more like Christ, our relationships change. Hunter describes it as a movement “from xenophobia [fear of strangers] to xenophilia [love of strangers].” He defines xenophobia more precisely as “the tendency to see personal qualities of difference and then to fear or hate the variation.” Xenophilia, on the other hand, is a neologism for the Greek word philoxenia, meaning “hospitality” (Hebrews 13:2).
The basic question is whether we cultivate “habits of heart” that lead us closer to or further from strangers — people whom God created and for whom Christ died.
Peace is not merely an experience that happens “within” and “with others,” however. It also has implications “for the sake of the world.” A heart oriented to the kingdom of God inevitably cares about the just ordering of society, because Jesus cares about justice. Hunter writes about the society-wide dimension of peace but does not develop the theme in great detail. His primary focus is spiritual formation rather than social action.
I recommend Deep Peace as an antidote to discontent in disconcerting times. It is both wise and useful and — given the present moment — much needed.
Book Reviewed
Todd Hunter, Deep Peace: Finding Calm in a World of Conflict and Anxiety (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2021).
P.S. If you like my review, please click "Helpful" on my Amazon review page.
P.P.S. This review appears in the fall 2021 issue of Influence magazine and is cross-posted here by permission.
A lack of peace characterizes the present moment.
We see it in the acrimonious way organized factions debate controversial current events, social trends, and public policies. These debates negatively impact our personal relationships, dividing families and friends. Regrettably, even churches experience division. Christians may be united by faith, but too often, we are divided by politics as well.
The lack of peace outside of us operates in a vicious cycle with the lack of peace inside of us. Disconcerting times lead to discontented people. In turn, discontented people express themselves in ways that disconcert the times even more.
In such a moment, we Christians need to remember what peace is, understand why we don’t experience it, and commit to living peaceably both inside and out. This is the subject of Todd Hunter’s new book, Deep Peace: Finding Calm in a World of Conflict and Anxiety. Hunter is bishop of Churches for the Sake of Others, a diocese in the Anglican Church in North America.
Peace, writes Hunter, is “well-being in the widest sense of the word.” That well-being is personal, relational and social. In other words, and using the author’s prepositional phrases, peace should exist “within,” “with others,” and “for the sake of the world.”
Why is peace elusive? Fear, anger, aggression, and undue attachment to material possessions threaten our well-being. Peace eludes us when we experience pain and unanswered prayers, or when we act in self-centered ways. Online activity, obsession with failure, and FOMO (fear of missing out) exacerbate our feelings of ill-being. Hunter names these things “peace killers” and traces their source to “disordered desires.”
When we have such desires, we experience peace neither within nor with others. God’s kingdom, the one described in Isaiah 11:6, brings peace, but to experience that peace, our disordered desires must give way to a well-ordered heart. “What comprises a heart at peace and one that lives in peace with others?” Hunter asks. “It is a heart oriented toward and animated and energized by the kingdom of God.”
Living peaceably, then, requires heart work. “The opposite of peace is not merely conflict or war,” Hunter says, “but also anxiety marked by a noisy mind and an irritated soul.” Hunter goes on to write, “Peace is core to Jesus’ person and central to his work in the church and the world.” To experience the peace Jesus felt, then, we must become more like Him.
As we become more like Christ, our relationships change. Hunter describes it as a movement “from xenophobia [fear of strangers] to xenophilia [love of strangers].” He defines xenophobia more precisely as “the tendency to see personal qualities of difference and then to fear or hate the variation.” Xenophilia, on the other hand, is a neologism for the Greek word philoxenia, meaning “hospitality” (Hebrews 13:2).
The basic question is whether we cultivate “habits of heart” that lead us closer to or further from strangers — people whom God created and for whom Christ died.
Peace is not merely an experience that happens “within” and “with others,” however. It also has implications “for the sake of the world.” A heart oriented to the kingdom of God inevitably cares about the just ordering of society, because Jesus cares about justice. Hunter writes about the society-wide dimension of peace but does not develop the theme in great detail. His primary focus is spiritual formation rather than social action.
I recommend Deep Peace as an antidote to discontent in disconcerting times. It is both wise and useful and — given the present moment — much needed.
Book Reviewed
Todd Hunter, Deep Peace: Finding Calm in a World of Conflict and Anxiety (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2021).
P.S. If you like my review, please click "Helpful" on my Amazon review page.
P.P.S. This review appears in the fall 2021 issue of Influence magazine and is cross-posted here by permission.
December 11, 2021
In this book, Bishop Hunter describes God's peace from various perspectives and how and why we need to attain to it, not only for ourselves but for the sake of others. Excellent book for a discussion group.
September 21, 2021
Peace. It’s an image and state of being that many seek, particularly now as we live through a global pandemic. We’re worried about going outside, to the store, or out to eat. As a society, extreme polarization is the norm. Many of us feel like our lives are out of control and too busy. In Western cultures at least, peace seems to be in short supply.
Bishop Todd Hunter seeks to address this issue head on. I was given the opportunity to read an advance copy of the book Deep Peace (with no obligation to write a positive review). Overall, I found the book to be a thoughtful explanation of the topic, however, I also felt it needed broad practical examples to help the concepts stick. I will say that after each chapter there are useful reflection questions to help the reader go deeper with the concepts.
Years ago at a live event I heard Bishop Todd say something to the effect of, “Your heart can’t handle your newsfeed.” His point was the world was so crazy and chaotic with fires, floods, wars, etc. that as humans, we get overwhelmed when we ingest what is offered by the news outlets each day. This concept has stuck with me ever since; I’ve tried to grow deeper in my own soul to better be able to live at peace in this chaotic world.
When approaching Deep Peace I hoped this book would address this issue; how can the reader deepen and expand his or her soul in order to be able to make it through the news each day? After reading the book, I now have a better idea of how to get there.
The book is laid out in a series of 5 sections:
10 Peace killers
Trinity of Peace
Peace within
Peace with others
Practicing Peace
The format of the chapters is conversational with a lot of practical advice and Bible quotations. There are some personal stories, but one area where I think the book could have been strengthened is with more examples from people living out this experience of peace. Having more illustrations to illuminate the concepts would move this from 4 to 5 stars.
Throughout the book I was regularly inspired. One passage that spoke directly to me came from the beginning of Chapter 7 (Kindle loc. 1026), where Hunter talks about a variety of jobs/roles he could have fulfilled had he not been invited into ministry. He has this statement, “I realize that the truly fundamental aspect of my life could have been lived out in any role. Because, fundamentally, I am a student of Jesus….. A given role is simply the context in which I learn from Jesus.” This helped me to reframe some of the work I do: that ultimately, being shaped and learning from Jesus is my primary task regardless of my job.
I have already ordered a paper copy of the book and I look forward to going back through it to look for insights I missed in my first reading. I do recommend this book to anyone looking for more peace in their life, relationships, and walk with Jesus.
Bishop Todd Hunter seeks to address this issue head on. I was given the opportunity to read an advance copy of the book Deep Peace (with no obligation to write a positive review). Overall, I found the book to be a thoughtful explanation of the topic, however, I also felt it needed broad practical examples to help the concepts stick. I will say that after each chapter there are useful reflection questions to help the reader go deeper with the concepts.
Years ago at a live event I heard Bishop Todd say something to the effect of, “Your heart can’t handle your newsfeed.” His point was the world was so crazy and chaotic with fires, floods, wars, etc. that as humans, we get overwhelmed when we ingest what is offered by the news outlets each day. This concept has stuck with me ever since; I’ve tried to grow deeper in my own soul to better be able to live at peace in this chaotic world.
When approaching Deep Peace I hoped this book would address this issue; how can the reader deepen and expand his or her soul in order to be able to make it through the news each day? After reading the book, I now have a better idea of how to get there.
The book is laid out in a series of 5 sections:
10 Peace killers
Trinity of Peace
Peace within
Peace with others
Practicing Peace
The format of the chapters is conversational with a lot of practical advice and Bible quotations. There are some personal stories, but one area where I think the book could have been strengthened is with more examples from people living out this experience of peace. Having more illustrations to illuminate the concepts would move this from 4 to 5 stars.
Throughout the book I was regularly inspired. One passage that spoke directly to me came from the beginning of Chapter 7 (Kindle loc. 1026), where Hunter talks about a variety of jobs/roles he could have fulfilled had he not been invited into ministry. He has this statement, “I realize that the truly fundamental aspect of my life could have been lived out in any role. Because, fundamentally, I am a student of Jesus….. A given role is simply the context in which I learn from Jesus.” This helped me to reframe some of the work I do: that ultimately, being shaped and learning from Jesus is my primary task regardless of my job.
I have already ordered a paper copy of the book and I look forward to going back through it to look for insights I missed in my first reading. I do recommend this book to anyone looking for more peace in their life, relationships, and walk with Jesus.
September 23, 2021
“Peace with God,” “Peace Within,” and “Peace for the Sake of the World”—these are the headings of the reflection questions at the end of each chapter of Deep Peace. They capture the constant and necessary shifting of perspective that Todd Hunter brings to his contemporary look at the critical subject of peace. Perhaps like me you will find that you defined peace too narrowly, and looked through its lens too infrequently. I recommend this approachable book without reservation for both individual and group study.
April 21, 2023
This was a good read. I intentionally went slow through this one. Great questions at the end to consider. Like legitimately good questions. So I wanted to sit and meditate on those before moving on to the next chapter. I felt like there were a few chapters that could have been merged into one so that is why I took away a star.
October 27, 2021
Inspirational and Practical - Bishop Hunter provides a remarkable book that uplifts, informs, and instructs with the insights of a skilled narrator. Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews